The present invention relates to systems for reducing power consumption of accessory power systems, such as seat heaters, air conditioning, and seat back massage.
The modern car or truck which incorporates an airbag may also have a system for detecting the presence and position and weight of vehicle occupants. Considerable cost savings may be achieved by not deploying an airbag during a crash where it is not needed because no occupant is present with respect to a particular airbag. In addition, it has been discovered that in some circumstances deployment of an airbag should be adjusted in force or foregone altogether to maximize passenger safety. The circumstances under which, and the force with which an airbag deploys, relates to the size and weight of the seat occupant, and whether the seat occupant is properly positioned with respect to the airbag, so as not to be harmed by the airbag deployment itself.
Seat position sensors are suggested by U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,226 for use in optimally adjusting the angular position of vehicle equipment such as fender mirrors, interior mirrors, blowing ports of an air conditioner, speakers, and instrument meters, with respect to a vehicle occupant.
What is needed is a way to use vehicle seat occupant information available to the safety system to improve the operation of other vehicle systems to save energy.
The system and method for conserving energy of this invention utilizes information collected by a part of the vehicle safety system known as an occupant classification system. The occupant classification system provides information concerning whether seats other than the driver""s seat are occupied and provides information concerning the size and weight of any occupant present. A non-safety power load logic receives information from the occupant classification system and uses this information to reduce unnecessary power loads such as the amount of vehicle air-conditioning, seat heating, or seat back massage. Information may be transferred between the occupant classification system and a non-safety power load logic via a vehicle information data bus, or by a hard wired communication link. Power is reduced by turning off energy consuming functions which are specific to an unoccupied seat, or by modulating a power consuming function in proportion to the size or weight of the seat occupant.
It is a feature of the present invention to utilize information collected for safety purposes to conserve vehicle power.
It is a further feature of the present invention to utilize information collected for safety purposes to modulate the amount of energy consumed by non-safety systems.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.